‘Land Of My Forefathers Has Descended From Paradise Deep Into Hell’

• Welcome Speech In Houston By Tamil Attorney George R. Willy published in this weeks Sunday Leader.
Your Excellency; Mrs. Rajapaksa; Hon. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee; Hon. Consul General Arora; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.
Welcome your Excellency to this great city. If you can ignore the oak trees and the mockingbirds, you could easily mistake this for Sri Lanka. It is in Sri Lanka that I was born, and my mother and the parents of my wife Shanti, our grandfathers and our grandmothers are all buried under the sacred soil of my motherland. I grew up, your Excellency, in Jaffna and moved to Colombo when I was only 10 years old. My wife is from Badulla and grew up in Diyathalawa, where her father was a well respected Captain.
I have smelt the sweetness of margosa trees in Jaffna and tasted the red jambu fruits that left red stains on my white shirts as I walked to school in Colombo. I know the lure of jack fruits ripening on the tree as the crows begin to break them open. I have seen the bright colored pandals during Vesak and shamelessly eaten the food at the dansalas meant for the poor and I have heard the chanting in the kovils and inhaled the smell of jasmines and the josticks.
I have heard the bells of All Saints’ Church as I assisted Father Herath during mass. But since I left Sri Lanka in 1975, there has been such pain, such sorrow and such agony. The mighty Mahaweli Ganga that usually brings its sacred waters to the paddy fields spat out blood, both Sinhalese and Tamil. From up here in the United States, I have watched the land of my forefathers descend from Paradise deep into Hell. No one can say with any certainty who is to blame. But the time for blaming is long gone.
Your Excellency, you are descended from Duttu Gemunu and my people from Elara. Remember how Duttu Gemunu fought Elara on his elephant Kandula and killed Elara. Duttu Gemunu, of course, is still remembered for uniting Sri Lanka for the first time. But he is also remembered for something else. After defeating and killing Elara, he built a monument for Elara out of respect for his worthy opponent. He ordered all citizens of the land to stop, dismount, and pay respect to Elara. In so doing, he not only showed what a great nobleman he was but also proved to be a great politician. He knew that he had to rule the Tamil people too after the defeat of Elara.
Your Excellency, fate and fortune and your great political skills have placed you at a unique point in history. Children, in years to come, will read in their history books that a great leader, a great warrior by the name of Mahinda Rajapaksa finally defeated the rebellion after nearly 25 years when several before him failed. They may even say that you are the Duttu Gemunu of the 21st Century. But if you want to wear Gemunu’s mantle, your Excellency, then you will have to build a monument too. That monument does not have to be a dagoba or a building. It will have to be new policy backed by law with teeth to enforce.
Do not make the mistake that sparked the ‘58 riots. Do not hold back Tamil youth who want to get into universities. Do not make the Tamils feel as though they are second class citizens. Respect their religions and respect their language. There is something about the Tamil people you need to know, Your Excellency. To them their language is God. There are only a few cultures in the world that have such devotion to their language.
You were trained as a lawyer, and in your early career you were a formidable defender of human rights. Now, you have the popularity; you have the power of a hero like Julius Caesar returning to Rome from his conquests. No one can deny you what you ask. Ask the parliament to pass some of the entrenched clauses you and I read in law school when we had to study the Soulbury Constitution. If you need my help, I will give it free as many in this audience would. The Tamil people are naked and hungry looking for you to assure them that there is a place for them. Make sure they have one. You killed one Prabhakaran, but do not let another one grow. You cannot prevent another one with swords and guns. You can only do that with your heart and wisdom. The compassion, truth, and justice you learned from the Buddha are the only weapons you will need.
According to Dhammapada, Buddha said: “Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.”
Your Excellency, as you leave this fair city and return to Sri Lanka, promise me that the ten-year-old boy walking to school tomorrow in his white shirt will have no other red stain than from the jambu fruit, the morning crow will not open anything other than the jack fruit, that there will be nothing else hanging from the margosa tree than the fruits I smelt. Your Excellency, return us to Paradise! Return us to Paradise!

University Students the new Tigers.

Somehow after listening to all the drivel spewing out of the government propaganda machine - specially about the international conspiracy to make the students rebel - I can't help but wonder if this is true. After all nothing unites Sri Lanka like a common enemy to beat to a pulp. That way it keeps the eyes and minds off more unsavory things. Wonder who will it will be next?

We are not talking to fools you Idiot!

I was driving peacefully enjoying the empty road and listening to some beautiful oldies on Gold FM. It was a blissful moment. And then of course a commercial interrupted it and shattered my bliss like a bomb being thrown at a wedding. This particular spot was about an air conditioner which would cost only 150 bucks a day. Listening to this spot irritated me beyond belief. I think it was because it took me back in time to a time when I was dealing with certain clients who consider that their customers absolutely dumb. They want to simplify there proposition to the lowest possible value thinking it would make it more interesting for the gullible consumer who would swallow his spiel hook line and sinker. Firstly I am sure you can't pay for this AC on a daily basis and it has to be a monthly fee. Secondly 4500 bucks a month for an air conditioner is an excellent rate which (I believe) is far more attractive to someone who would want one. And more importantly afford one. Surely they can't be misguided into thinking that some one like a three wheel driver would rush an buy air conditioner just because its available at that price without factoring in how much more they would have to pay for their electricity. And I would argue that the spot would go over the head of a prime prospect as he would not bother to do the math. I can remember reading somewhere once, a quote by a legendary advertising figure who said "the consumer is not an idiot she is your wife" well guess these guys never heard of it.

A classic case of too much business!

I always thought I cut an imposing figure but it seems sometimes their seems to be a mismatch between what we think and how others perceive it. As was aptly displayed when I stepped into Fresh Fish to get my weekly dose of sea food. I was completely ignored by the service staff behind the counter. Either they were blind or I was invisible. Well it has to be the latter because they were seeing all the other customers who came in after me well enough to serve them.
I waited and waited for about twenty minutes and then left in a huff thinking to myself that I was going to take my business elsewhere. But oh the shame of it! I realized there was nowhere else I could take my business to. The lure of the large prawns were too tempting. I swallowed my pride and went back in and complained to the sales supervisor and got someone to serve me. But even after I was served it took a good 20 - 30 minutes to get my order to the check out counter because I had to get one fish cleaned and sliced. Generally the clean the prawns and give but apparently they did not have enough people to do so. This is with over ten people behind the counter plus supervisors who look after customer welfare. Somehow I don't think there were more than 20 customers to be served at any given point. If you look at the numbers there shouldn't have been any problem in servicing all the customers without a problem. But it seemed that they lacked a proper system. I must say now I have new respect for the Keells Super guys who carry out a much larger operation with a similar staff.

One night’s shelter – from home to homelessness - who said drugs and religion does not mix?

Picking up a book written by a monk to get information on drugs probably sounds completely unbelievable. But then sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. If I had seen this book in a bookstore I would have passed over it because the cover looks so boring. The only reason I started reading it was one of my colleagues described it as an almanac of Drugs in Sri Lanka and Asia and I wanted to know if there was anything that I did not know about. But what I found was an insightful and entertaining story about an American hippie who ultimately became a monk in Sri Lanka. He started searching for self realization with the help of drugs but ends up in finding it in something completely opposite: monk hood. This story is even more entertaining because most of it is set in Sri Lanka. The only down side is that this book is not available in any of the popular book stores in Colombo. If you are keen to buy it you would have to look at the shops which sell Buddhist Publications. It is a pity because the story rocks.

A sign of the times.

A friend found this on Facebook and mailed it to me wonder where this sign is but don't you love the last one. Gives the phrase "Doggy style" a new meaning.

I didn't know Jack!!!

Till I saw “You don’t know Jack”!

A truer word has not been written on these blog pages my friend was that the first time I heard of him was when I picked up the movie by the same title completely by accident. But thankfully it did the trick of transforming what was turning out to be a bit of a dull Saturday night at home to an extremely interesting one. Just in case you don’t know what I am talking to it is a movie. A movie about a true life doctor called Jack Kervokian who was renowned for his eccentric and morbid ways. Specially on his views about terminally ill patients being given the freedom to die. And to assist in doing so he made a little gadget where a patient could pull a string and activate his own death. The film starred Al Pacino and Susan Sarandon.

I have always loved Al Pacino’s acting skills but it was a treat to see him perform as a 70 year old man bent in two. Jack Kerkovian intrigued me so much that I did an internet search on him and found that Al Pacino really looked like the real JK.

I also found out that JK was a painter though most of his paintings were really morbid. I just thought of posting some on here so you can see what I mean.

However it was a well directed movie and something which you should not miss if you like a good drama.